NCLEX exam
National Council of State Boards of Nursing states that the NCLEX (National Council Licensure EXamination) covers the enumerated “categories of client needs”:
- Management of Care
- Safety and Infection Control
• Health Promotion and Maintenance
- Growth and Development Through the Life Span
- Prevention and Early Detection of Disease
• Physiological Integrity
- Basic Care and Comfort
- Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies
- Reduction of Risk Potential
- Physiological Adaptation
• Psychosocial Integrity
- Coping and Adaptation
- Psychosocial Adaptation
If you want to take the NCLEX exam, you have to apply for nursing license from your state board of nursing. Your board will evaluate whether or not you meet its criteria for NCLEX examination. If you are credible, then you must register to take the exam.
You will receive an NCLEX Examination Candidate Bulletin in the mail after you have applied for a license from your state board of nursing. Then You may register with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s testing service by phone, or by filling out a mail-in registration form. After your state board of nursing has verified your eligibility to take the NCLEX exam, you will receive an ATT(Authorization to Take the Test). It will come along with a list of testing centers and instructions for how to schedule an appointment to take the examination.
The NCLEX exam is a quite difficult multiple choice exam which uses an interactive system called CAT (Computerized Adaptive Testing) to gauge your level of competence.registered nurses candidates will answer a minimum of seventy five questions, LPN candidates a minimum of eighty five questions. After you have answered the minimum number of questions, the computer will attempt to access your level of competence.
You will have five hours in which to complete the exam. This includes the time set aside for the introductory computer tutorial and for two 10-minute breaks. The NCLEX examination is scored once by the computer on which you are taking it, and a second time by the National Council’s testing service. It will take about a month for your state board of nursing to mail you the results of your exam.
If you fail the test, your state board of nursing will mail you a diagnostic profile that will outline both the areas of knowledge in which your performance was satisfactory and the areas in which it was not.
Of course, you can retake the test as many times as you need to. But The National Council’s policy states that you have to wait at least 91 days before retaking the test. Individual state boards may impose other, stricter requirements.
